


Rare and Peculiar Creatures

by RuBecSo



Category: Boardwalk Empire
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 21:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20453651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuBecSo/pseuds/RuBecSo
Summary: 'Over the years he’d sorted them into three types.'Alternative title: Charlie Luciano's Field Guide to the Smiles of Meyer Lansky





	Rare and Peculiar Creatures

**Author's Note:**

> This has no particular context, it's just Charlie thinking about Meyer's smile like the soppy bastard he is. It could be set at any time he's feeling sentimental.

Charlie studied Meyer’s smiles like a scientist categorising rare and peculiar creatures. Most of the time the little man’s features were a still lake of neutrality, so when a smile broke the surface it always meant something.

Over the years he’d sorted them into three types.

The first was the kind he gave rowdy punters at craps games, the ones who made the mistake of thinking the 5’4” _ shtarke _ was some kind of joke. The kind he’d give business owners as he weighed an envelope in his hands and asked them if they were sure this was what their protection was worth to them. The kind he’d given one of Masseria’s nephews once, when he’d stepped between him and Charlie after the greasy prick had called him Sal one too many times.

Mouth closed, corners slowly stretched back towards his ears, one side a little wider than the other like he just thought of a joke you haven’t heard. Ice cold gaze lifted to meet the receiver’s, chin and brows kept level. 

_ Things could get unpleasant for you. But there’s no need for that, right? _

It was similar to the one Arnold Rothstein often wore. In fact, after they’d started working for him, Charlie had noticed Meyer’s own smile changing to mirror it. He’d never seen him use it on Rothstein himself, though. When talking to the Bankroll, Meyer wore his second type of smile. The one he wore when pitching a new enterprise, or smoothing out some hiccup with an existing one, or when he realised they were going to have to talk their way out of a situation. It was a smile for coming out alive now and worrying about coming out on top later.

Lips pulled back to show gleaming teeth, brows climbing halfway up his forehead. Eyes large and innocent, grin so wide his cheeks bunched up like he was waiting for some old lady to pinch them. 

There was nervousness in it, but not the same kind Charlie sometimes spotted in his friend, the kind he kept beneath the surface save for a twitch in his fingers or a darting motion in his eyes. It was like he dug that raw anxiety out, polished it, cut it to catch the light, and put it on display. It was exactly as authentic as it needed to be.

_ I’m no threat to you. Just think of what we could do if we only trusted one another. _

Then there was the third type. That was the rarest. Charlie could count on one hand the number of people Meyer let see that one. It was the smile he wore when he wasn’t thinking about it. Sometimes he’d catch himself and swallow it before he gave himself away. But sometimes, when the hour was late enough, or the whiskey strong enough, or the company private enough, he’d let it be. 

When Benny did something too outlandish not to laugh at. When Meyer went inside himself and came out with a solution to their problems. When they were alone, and Charlie looked at him and gave him one of his own grins, which for all he knew Meyer watched and categorised just as he did for him. 

Charlie didn’t know what his own smile looked like in those moments, but he knew what it meant.

_ I don’t know how you do it, Little Man. _

**Author's Note:**

> Translation:  
'Shtarke' = tough guy / strong-arm guard at card games.


End file.
